Deleted

.:John:.

DELETED. Because nobody cares at all.

Post Edited By Moderator (Joshua Donelson (Parallax)) : 10/23/2009 4:28:28 AM GMT

Gadgetman

I think some of the names have been created 'preemptively', so that others can't pretend to be them.
Also, even if they don't actually visit the forums, we must assume that their contact information is valid, and in the case of companies like Mouser, that may be the reason to have a profile.
Others may be busy with other things, or just lurks and doesn't bother to sign in unless they have a question to ask.

There may be other reasons, too.

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Don't visit my new website...

Chris Savage

Hello,

We can’t just delete an account because they haven’t signed on in a long time. If they don’t violate the Forum Policy then we have no reason to delete them. I know I would be upset if I was away for a long time and returned to find my account gone.

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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support

PAR

curious_roboticist said...
I was looking at the member list and some people who joined were last seen the day they created their account. If your account is a few years old and you haven't made any posts at all or been seen in a long time, the account should be deleted so that others can use the name.

I suggest that it would be most inappropriate to allow re-use of an account name by someone other than the original (and only) creator of that account.

Identity theft (and/or mistaken identity)·is rampant enough, without facilitating it in the Parallax forums.

PAR

LoopyByteloose

It is funny how some things hang around the internet. My first ISP was in California and I was trying to promote freelance tax preparation work as I had recently passed the Treasury Department's Enrolled Agent exam.

So I chose 'Taxman' as my online login. I soon found out that every time I logged into a chat room, everyone else would sign off. If was absolutely the internet 'kiss of death'.

To this day, I can do a search of my email addresses and 'Taxman@xxxxx.com' still comes up as a possible email address for me, even though I haven't used the name for a long, long time and would gladly give it away. It has been nearly twenty years.

The internet seems to have a memory of its own or 'a ghost in the machine'.

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PLEASE CONSIDER the following:

Do you want a quickly operational black box solution or the knowledge included therein?······

···················· Tropically,····· G. Herzog [noparse][[/noparse]·黃鶴 ]·in Taiwan

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

curious_robiticist said...
DID ANYONE ACTUALLY READ THE FREAKING QUESTION!!!!

Actually, yes. Here's what it says, in part:

[b]IF ([/b]your account is a few years old [b]AND ([/b]you haven't made any posts at all [b]OR[/b] been seen in a long time[b])) THEN[/b]
  the account should be deleted so that others can use the name
[b]ENDIF[/b]

(emphasis mine with the parentheses and implied THEN and ENDIF inserted). That's different from

"NEVER BEEN USED. EVER!!!!! NO POSTS!! NOT SEEN SINCE THE DAY THEY CREATED THE ACCOUNT."

It's that Boolean OR in your original IF statement that loosens the requirements for executing what comes after THEN. (BTW, in most high-level languages — English being among them — readability is usually enhanced if one doesn't use all caps — with the possible exception of keywords.)

You didn't know this would become a lesson in programming, did you?

-Phil
_______________________

(A good lawyer, given a different nudge in his formative years, would probably have become just as good a programmer; and vice-versa.)

Chris Savage

@Phil, very nice…

@ curious_roboticist, I will quote my previous post…

“If they don’t violate the Forum Policy then we have no reason to delete them.”

Now, for the other part of things…even if we did want to remove inactive accounts…This software doesn’t really have a feature in it to make that easy. The best I can tell we would have to manually go through each account to see when they last signed on (or if they ever did). With over 13,000 accounts we don’t have the resources to do it. Fortunately this is a Support Forum so you’re not judged by your username unless it is offensive.

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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support

iamdenteddisk

I couldnt care less about used or unused names ,I mean some of them im sure are folks forgeting their passwords and starting a new account just to get on there or just giveing up without notice but I would think 9month's unused is enough time to call it quit's.--->·but my thought's are more on the threads that dont resolve to a point or are something resolved by looking in the download doc's they shouldnt clog the forums .I my self asked some silly stuff wich·I cant deleate when I first got on here now I see them in there where I'm trying to plug something and feel like who would even listen to my new post if they read the first one's·I put here. I mean I was building and posting before·I ever read the doc's now I've read them and all the forums and goten commfy with the stamps but still those nooby post stand there saying your an idiot for asking this.and twice an idiot to answer ..so if a post converges to a point I can see the need of keeping or if there is an unread post·I see keeping it but the ones that prety much ask wich side of the battery is the plus should be history. like this post here that will stand for nothing do nothin,change nothing should be deleated in a few days you would think....

Franklin

iamdenteddisk, why don't you make a list of all the posts that should be deleted and the reason why and send it to Parallax?

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- Stephen

John Bond

Some 8 years ago, I was a member of another forum and I annoyed the forum administrator when I felt she was getting very dictatorial. She blocked my access and deleted my posts. She continued to stomp on other forum users and was eventually removed…

I noted last week that my access to this site is still denied, as no doubt are dozens of other people. To be honest, I am too lazy to do anything about it but I am sure that the site loses something because many of us were professionals and experts in that particular field.
I believe that reading what is on a site but not posting still makes you part of the site’s community and I believe this also entitles you to retain your name. Yes, even if you visit the site once a year, you are still part of the community.

By the way, I read much more regularly on the Parallax site than I post and I am always amazed at the quality of the posts and of the high standard of site maintenance. Well done all you regular contributors and Parallax staff, I salute you.

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SRLM

Personally, I like to keep my systems clean. Perhaps Parallax can send out an email with a link to deactivate to those who would qualify under the Curious Criteria. If they get the auto message back about deactivated Email or the user replies with the deletion option, then the account is taken out. If they do not want their account deleted, then that's fine too and it has the added benefit of reminding them about the forums.

Truth be told, I think that I have an old account here, but I forgot about it and now it is just sitting there. I would like that to be deleted [noparse]:)[/noparse]

Capt. Quirk

If they don’t violate the Forum Policy then we have no reason to delete them.

You guys are talking to someone thats been hacking and stealing accounts, like Mike Green's. All because he wants to start a long thread.

weirdo123

Capt. Quirck- A few things, first of all.

1. I did not hack Mike Green's account. I simply changed my profile name to Mike Green(with two spaces), to show how easy Identity theft is on these forums.

2. You have been posting a slanderous message in every thread this person has started. Please stop, you are acting like a child.

Chris Savage

Okay, this situation is getting out of hand. Regardless of your intentions, impersonating another member of the forums is a good way to get your account locked and IP banned. New members are often quick to say their posts always go unanswered while others get many replies. If you look carefully at these posts you will see that the ones that get the answers tend to:

- Provide most, if not all information necessary to assist them with their problem.
- Attach their complete source code, if necessary, so that it can be loaded directly into the IDE with formatting intact.
- Provide a descriptive and clear subject line.
- Provide pictures if necessary.
- Outline what steps they have already taken and what results they have produced.

The bottom line is that if there isn’t enough information about a post it will tend to go unanswered. This is especially true if the problem itself isn’t answered. Some things that cause posts to go unanswered:

- Subject lines of (No Subject) or HELP!!!!!!! These provide no information of what your problem is for anyone to know if they are even capable of helping you. Both violate the forum guidelines too.
- Posting very large programs into the message rather than attaching. This is not only clutter and difficult to follow, but often the formatting is lost. It is easier for experienced programmers to load·attached code in and see what is going on.· This can be as easy as clicking on the filename.
- Not providing enough information. Posts that say something like, “I created a program to count and it don’t work” does not really mean anything because it does not tell enough information about the problem. What do you mean it does not work? What is it doing? What is it supposed to do? What is the output device? Etc.

I hope this message gets some of those who believe their posts always go unanswered some help in determining how to better post their questions in order to get the best help. These forums are here to help everyone. But you have to be willing to help us help you by providing information. Take care.

P.S. - The alternate ID is locked. Please use your normal account only.

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Chris Savage
Parallax Engineering


Post Edited (Chris Savage (Parallax)) : 8/25/2008 4:17:54 PM GMT

SRLM

It takes time to answer questions, and if the poster is not willing to invest an equal or greater amount of time into the thread then nobody else will.

Paul Baker

Don't want to really dig up old arguments, but I would like to reinforce Chris and SLRM's posts. With the exception of Chris and I, no one is obligated to answer anyone's questions (and for us it is a "as time permits", although both of us make all attempts to ensure this happens even if it means being on here at night after office hours or on the weekend *take a look at the posting date of this message, and Chris' post immediately following this one*). While we are blessed as a company to have many knowledgable forum members who like to answer people's questions, they do so entirely of thier own pleasure.

The worst way to post a message is to title it "help!" (or no title at all) with a message along the lines of "My X isn't working, can anyone help me?" No details beyond this. Most people don't want to touch this type of post because it almost always takes 5-10 volleys of messages just to get at the heart of the problem and this can take days to get to depending on how responsive the parties are. Meanwhile the person helping "owns" the issue, IOW they feel an obligation to pursue the thread until the problem is resolved. Many forum members want to get in, answer the question, and get out without having to pull teeth from the person they are trying to help.

If a poster follow's Chris' guidelines there's a 95% chance that one of the forum regulars will answer the question quickly, long before Chris or I have a chance to get to the post.

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Paul Baker
Propeller Applications Engineer

Parallax, Inc.

Post Edited (Paul Baker (Parallax)) : 9/1/2008 8:03:35 PM GMT

Chris Savage

I would like to add an additional thing to this. Please post help questions in the appropriate forum, not via PM. Private messages cannot include attachments and nobody else on the forums benefits from the discussion, so it is a limiting way to ask for help.

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Chris Savage
Parallax Engineering

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

Well said, Chris. I'll second your admonition.

I occasionally receive emails (my PMs are disabled) asking for private assistance. My answer is virtually always the same: "Please post your question on the forum. If I have the time, and there's anything I can contribute, I will try to answer there so others can benefit."

Thanks,
Phil

The Truth Is Out There

i followe d mike greens link here from the sandbox and read this page with great anticipation. but it occurs to me we are living in the 'me' age where all anyone cares about is themselves. daily i have seen some smart people posting some great information. just as often i see the very thing you are trying to get rid of. to be honest i do not know how you keep your sanity sometimes. i hope to have something useful to contribute at some point. until then i will try to follow the forum rules and stay on topic. those that take the time to help others are deserving of far more credit than you get. makes me miss the days of user groups. life was simpler before the internet.

John Bond

Oh and don't forget Jon's favourite line of a while back... Have you Googled it before you post a question. You often get a better grasp using a query than posting a new topic because there are usually several existing posts on the subject.

This forum has an incredible information resource in all the existing posts. I am amazed how often the same questions come up. Some of these questions come up EVERY week. I am sure Chris and Paul could develop a standard reply database for about a third of our queries. Below is a fictitious example of such a system.

"SX-Key not Working" – post standard response No 43
"Trouble programming SX at 3 volts"- post standard response No 28
"Driving a relay from my stamp"- post standard response No 5
"Servo not responding"- post standard response No 16
"My Stamp not talking to my PC" - post standard response No 23

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